Workers for the Bay Area Rapid Transit District went on strike Friday, five days after Cohen, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, came to town in an attempt to defuse the strained labor negotiations. Before Thursday's strike announcement, Cohen's involvement seemed promising. As recently as Wednesday, union officials were crediting the longtime labor lawyer with changing the tone at the bargaining table.

But a day later, Cohen and his staff were packing up to head back to Washington, D.C., and workers were preparing for a strike.

"What's key is that, as a mediator, you cannot pull a rabbit out of the hat - if one side doesn't want a deal," said Harley Shaiken, a labor professor at UC Berkeley. "I think timing here can be everything. It often is in negotiations."

Shaiken said Cohen - who was brought in after state mediators also failed to bring the parties to an agreement - did seem to help both sides make major progress, but he may have arrived too late.

"You had very intense, very productive negotiations in which deep divides were bridged in the 11th hour," he said of compromises over benefits and other compensation issues made last week. "But then the issue of work rules, which was present at the beginning, all of the sudden soared to the head of the line."

(L-R) Tom Hock, Scot Beckenbaugh, Kerry Hammil, and George Cohen, prepare to address the press after a breakdown in negociations on Thursday. People involved with negotiations between BART and its unions have declared that they are at an impasse following nearly 30 hours of negotiations on Thursday, and the unions will strike at midnight. BART negotiations failed to yield an agreement on Thurssday, October 17, 2013, in Oakland, Calif. less

(L-R) Tom Hock, Scot Beckenbaugh, Kerry Hammil, and George Cohen, prepare to address the press after a breakdown in negociations on Thursday. People involved with negotiations between BART and its unions have ... more

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle

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Federal mediators leave for the evening after George Cohen, 2nd from right, announced that trains will run on Thursday as negotiations continue late into the night on Wednesday. BART negotiations continue on Wednesday, October 16, 2013, in Oakland, Calif., as both sides try to iron out the final details of a contract. less

Federal mediators leave for the evening after George Cohen, 2nd from right, announced that trains will run on Thursday as negotiations continue late into the night on Wednesday. BART negotiations continue on ... more

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle

BART gap too wide for respected mediator to bridge

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Among the best

Those who have worked with Cohen say he is one of the best in the business, regardless of which side of the table he's on or where he has sat in the past. Cohen, who was appointed to his federal post by President Obama in 2009, worked for four decades as an attorney representing unions, both public and private, in contract negotiations.

"George Cohen may be the consummate labor relations professional in the United States," said Robert Manfred, the chief operating officer for Major League Baseball who formerly handled labor relations.

Manfred met Cohen when the now-mediator was representing baseball players in contract talks with Major League Baseball in the mid-1990s. Despite their opposing roles, Manfred said he would "happily accept George as a mediator in a baseball dispute.

"He's one of the most creative and fair-minded people I have ever seen in the bargaining process," Manfred said. "You could not have a better person involved in a labor dispute."

That said, it doesn't always work out, as Bob Batterman, a labor lawyer who works on the management side, saw in 2010 and 2011 when Cohen was called in to mediate a National Football League contract between players and the NFL. Batterman said Cohen worked around the clock for 17 days trying to help both sides reach an agreement, and there was a four-month lockout.

"We finally came to an agreement without his involvement," he said.

Soccer league talks

That wasn't the case in the 2009 Major League Soccer contract talks, which Cohen successfully mediated. Batterman, who was representing the league, said that was a situation where Cohen not only helped the parties strike a deal, but maintain their relationship moving forward.

"I don't know if we would have been able to come out of that peacefully and constructively without George," he said.

"Most mediators, though competent and well meaning, are not at the level of experience George is at. He was the premier labor-side lawyer - his experience was so complete," Batterman said. "As director, he's not obligated to get involved. ... But he likes to take on the high-profile ones himself."

Cohen said he'd return to the table when BART labor and management are ready to sit down. If the parties don't agree to binding arbitration, Shaiken said, that may well be necessary.

"I think the unions will continue to push compulsory arbitration, but if BART digs in, a mediator could, in effect, provide some of that (neutrality)," he said, adding that Cohen will probably "have to be convinced both sides want him back."

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